Linguistics (LING)

326 General Linguistics (3:3:0). Introduction to general linguistics: phonetics, phonology, morphology, and syntax.

507 Field Work in Applied Linguistics (3:0:0). Prerequisite: LING 326, 520, 521, or 582. Contact the English Department one semester prior to enrollment. Field work provides experience working in a language-teaching program or an educational research organization.

520 Descriptive Linguistics (3:3:0). Introduction to the terminology and methodology of modern linguistic science and a detailed structural analysis of English phonology, morphology, and syntax.

521 Applied Linguistics: Teaching English as a Second Language (3:3:0). Prerequisite: LING 520, 690, or 786. Theories and basic principles of the teaching of a second language, especially as they relate to the English language, introducing students to methods of teaching English to speakers of other languages.

522 Modern English Grammar (3:3:0). Prerequisite: One course in linguistics or permission of instructor. Overview of the structure of modern English beginning with word classes and ending with analyses of complex sentences. Most topics are introduced as problems of language description; in solving them, principles of syntactic argumentation are demonstrated as well. Students learn to tap their own intuitions about English to analyze grammatical structure.

523 Descriptive Aspects of English Phonetics and Phonology (3:3:0). An in-depth description and analysis of the sound system processes of modern English. Segmental phonetics, syllable structure, connected speech, and prosodic phenomena are among the topics. Implications for language instruction are also addressed.

581 Psycholinguistics (3:3:0). Prerequisite: LING 520, 690, or 786, or permission of instructor. Study of mental and psychological aspects of human language, including aphasia, association, autism, language acquisition, verbal concept formation, and perception.

582 Second Language Acquisition (3:3:0). Prerequisite: LING 520, 690, or 786, or permission of instructor. Second language (L2) acquisition examined from a linguistic perspective. First and second language acquisition are compared, and factors contributing to L2 variation are explored, including linguistic universals, transfer, age, input, and affective considerations.

686 Special Topics in Linguistics (3:3:0). Prerequisite: Varies with topic. Detailed advanced study of selected area of linguistics. Content varies. May be repeated once for credit with permission of department.

690 Generative Phonology (3:3:0). Sound systems of English and other languages from the perspective of phonological theory. Topics include articulatory phonetics, distinctive features, the nature of phonological representations and processes, rule ordering, abstractness, the role of external evidence, and nonlinear phonology.

691 Theories of Language (3:3:0). Prerequisite: LING520, 690, or 786, or permission of instructor. A seminar course in linguistic metatheory. A wide range of theories about language and about linguistic theory are examined, including those of Saussure, Bloomfield, Chomsky, and others. Readings from original sources.

692 Phonology II (3:3:0). Prerequisite: LING 690. Recent trends in phonological theory. Topics include stress assignment, tone spreading, and vowel harmony, from within a nonlinear framework. Segmental structure and underspecification are discussed.

785 Semantics and Pragmatics (3:3:0). Prerequisite: LING 520, 690, or 786, or permission of instructor. Developments in theoretical linguistics that explore how language form is related to meaning and context. Topics include reference, lexical semantics, logic, quantification, truth conditions and sentential meaning, presuppositions, and speech acts.

786 Syntax I (3:3:0). The nature and form of a syntactic theory, and an examination and analysis of the properties of several major natural language syntactic structures.

787 Syntax II (3:3:0). Prerequisite: LING 786. A theoretical treatment of syntactic phenomena that in the past few years have emerged as standard problems for syntactic analysis. Problems include binding, extraction, and quantification. Extensive reading in the primary theoretical literature.